Elephant Treadmill



L

Lee Michaels

Guest
Elephants need exercise, just like us!!

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/03/28/idaho_zoo_installs_elephant_treadmill/

This is interesting. They had to go to a company that makes conveyor belts
for the mining industry to make this treadmill. Definitely not your
consumer-human model.

Since this is in Alaska, they could have made her some giant cross country
skis!!

Elepants are very good swimmers. I saw a show recently that showed them
swimming. I was amazed that they move in the water so well. They can easily
swim for twenty or thirty miles too. Part of it is that they float so
easily. But those legs are very efficient paddles.

Sooooooo..............., why not a giant swim spa? The elephant would get a
bath. They like the water. They are supported by the water. Etc.

Two engineering challenges for this project that I can see. One would be to
have an easy way to get the elephant in and out of the swim spa. The other
would be to build a very powerful system to produce the current that the
elephant would swim against.
 
On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:42:36 -0400, "Lee Michaels"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Elephants need exercise, just like us!!
>
>http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/03/28/idaho_zoo_installs_elephant_treadmill/
>


Oops, mea culpa, I thought for sure this thread was about Dally's
treadmill.
TBR

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Lee Michaels" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Elephants need exercise, just like us!!
>
> http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/03/28/idaho_zoo_installs_elephant
> _treadmill/
>
> This is interesting. They had to go to a company that makes conveyor belts
> for the mining industry to make this treadmill. Definitely not your
> consumer-human model.
>
> Since this is in Alaska, they could have made her some giant cross country
> skis!!
>
> Elepants are very good swimmers. I saw a show recently that showed them
> swimming. I was amazed that they move in the water so well. They can easily
> swim for twenty or thirty miles too. Part of it is that they float so
> easily. But those legs are very efficient paddles.
>
> Sooooooo..............., why not a giant swim spa? The elephant would get a
> bath. They like the water. They are supported by the water. Etc.
>
> Two engineering challenges for this project that I can see. One would be to
> have an easy way to get the elephant in and out of the swim spa. The other
> would be to build a very powerful system to produce the current that the
> elephant would swim against.
>
>
>


Looky here:

http://www.endlesspools.com/landingpages/searchlandingsp.html

I'd seriously considered one of these (and still might!) but for the
time being, the 16K pricetag is a bit out of my range, at least until
the morgage is paid off. ;-) 7 years to go.....
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-*****." -Jack Nicholson